Chapter Thirty-Six: Things Are Not As They Seem

  He Lao Wu and three other members of the Ten Dragon Association were arrested, causing many travelers to be bewildered and discuss it in hushed tones.

  After Sun Heng proposed that the head of the public security department go and explain things, the murmurs of discussion gradually subsided.

  Sun Heng and I accompanied the public security personnel to interrogate He Lao Wu and others in the duty room of this small temporary parking station, and obtained a very important piece of information from their mouths.

  He Lao Wu and his men actually knew I was on this train, they came to take revenge on me.

  This news made me very uneasy, and Sun Heng furrowed his brow, saying angrily: "Which son of a bitch betrayed us? If I find out, I'll skin him alive!"

  I also said with some unease, "We left Chen Lao's place and boarded the train directly, there was no delay on the way, nor did we tell anyone about our itinerary, how could my whereabouts have been leaked?"

  Sun Heng felt a headache: "If there's a problem within our organization, I highly suspect one person..."

  "You mean Wang Zhan?"

  Sun Heng slowly nodded: "Although I don't want to admit it, Wang Zhan's suspicion is very high, I can't rule out that he betrayed us..."

  I thought for a moment: "If that's the case, then I understand. Wang Zhan would do such a thing to harm me because of Chen Jing. But I have another idea - if the person who betrayed us only did it for money, then it might not be Wang Zhan. As you said, although Wang Zhan is overbearing, he wouldn't do something that harms the country, and he's not short on money, which is an important point."

  Sun Heng thought for a moment before saying, "I'm not very sure, just guessing. If Wang Zhan betrayed us for Chen Jing, I still have some faith in that. For money, Wang Zhan wouldn't do such a thing, you're right, he's not short of money. But the current situation is very unfavorable to us, all suspicious people and things, we can't ignore them. I've already thought it through, let's change cars immediately, this way we can avoid premeditated conspiracies against us."

  I nodded: "Okay, then listen to you, change cars and go to our school."

  I and Dongfang Yu were arranged to a train passing through this temporary stop. This was also for our safety, we temporarily changed trains, those **** would not be able to find us in a short time. Chen Jing had another task, so she parted with us here.

  This time, He Lao Wu and his men hijacked the train we were on, mainly to take the passengers hostage in exchange for the high-ranking members of the Wanlong Society who had been captured. However, another reason was to deal with me. This fully explains that the remaining forces of the Wanlong Society still have no intention of letting me go.

  This makes me very puzzled, and I couldn't figure out why Wang Long has been looking for trouble with me all the time. If it was because of what we thought before, that Wang Long would look for me for their personnel list, now that this list has already been exposed, why do they still want to find me?

  I couldn't help but think of Li Huanhuan, who had left without saying goodbye. For some reason, whenever I thought about this issue, I would always think of Li Huanhuan, as if the matter was somehow related to her.

  As for what kind of relationship I have with Li Huanhuan, I don't know.

  Maybe when I see Li Huanhuan, I will know everything. At that time, I want to ask Li Huanhuan carefully what important thing Wang Long lost?

  The train we changed to was much faster, so a few hours later, we arrived at the railway station in the city where our school is located.

  On the way, we heard travelers say that our school's train station was severely damaged in the early stage and is still under reconstruction. When we got off the bus to take a look, it was indeed the case. The train station has completely changed its appearance, and it can be said that it is completely unrecognizable.

  There were many workers rebuilding the train station, we walked from the ruins to the highway outside the train station, hailed a taxi and headed straight to school.

  The driver of the rental car was a middle-aged uncle who was very talkative. After we got on the bus, he said to us: "You are students, right? The school hasn't officially started yet, and you've rushed over here! You're really enthusiastic!"

  I smiled and said: "Do you know when school starts?"

  "The driver said while driving, "It's not good to say that. The attack incident blew up a good university into pieces... Hmm, how can I put it, anyway, it was completely destroyed. The school is still fully repairing the teaching facilities, and it won't be completed in a short time. Moreover, when the attack occurred, so many students and teachers were killed or injured, how long will it take to finish the aftermath? So I say, you came too early."

  I furrowed my brow: "It's been over a month, almost two months, and the school still hasn't finished dealing with these things?"

  The driver turned his head and glanced at me, pointing to the damaged buildings by the roadside: "Don't mention schools, look at these residential houses, how many have been repaired? In this period of time, the whole society is in turmoil, who has the heart to repair their own house? Not to mention public buildings like schools. Alas... damn the Wanlong Association, they've made life miserable for us locals... Of course, you students have also suffered greatly, no better than us locals."

  "I gritted my teeth: 'The Wanlong Society has been exterminated and will no longer come to harm this place in the future...'"

  The driver uncle said loudly, "Nonsense! Last night there was still **** shooting and killing people at the river in the east of the city, what a joke that the Wanlong Society was eliminated, they are cheating us! We were deceived by the government, it's really self-deception..."

  I was taken aback: "Last night? Who told you?"

  The driver uncle looked at us nervously and suddenly said cautiously: "Don't tell others, I happened to take someone to the riverbank yesterday and saw more than a dozen **** fighting with the police on the riverbank! Alas, that situation, if no one dies, there will be no result. It scared me so much that I didn't even ask for the fare and ran away."

  I exchanged a glance with Sun Heng, nodded slightly, and he asked, "How did you know that was ****?"

  The driver uncle glared: "Isn't it **** going to have a gun? Besides, if you're not afraid of the police, what are you ****?"

  Sun Heng smiled: "Some criminals also have guns, of course, they don't have such sophisticated equipment."

  The driver uncle was anxious and said loudly: "I can see very clearly, they are dressed the same as those who attacked us last time, and the guns they hold are ones I've never seen before, it must be ****."

  Sun Heng no longer argued with Uncle Driver, but picked up the phone and made a call.

  I heard him inquiring about the situation at the riverbank last night on the phone, and after asking, he said to me and Dongfang Yu: "It's really Wanlonghui ****, but they've all been caught, and two people were beaten to death. There are also casualties on the police side. The public security department said that it is still under interrogation now, and the specific situation needs to be verified."

  I know it's just a cliché and don't mind: "Have they said whether there are still remnants of the Wanlong Society on this side?"

  Sun Heng shook his head: "Although they didn't say it, but judging from the current situation, I think there will still be remnants of the Wanlong Society here."

  Dongfang Yu also said: "Do we really want to stay here? Will there be any danger?"

  I'm actually worried too, but to take care of Dongfang Yu's emotions, I can only say: "The government has already taken control of the Wanlong Society, and I believe there won't be any more major terrorist incidents. If we stay here, it shouldn't be too dangerous."

  Dongfang Yu nodded: "I'll listen to you, whatever you say we'll do."

  Sun Heng also looked at me and said: "I will explain the situation here to Old Man Chen, then I'll stay with you all for a while."

  I laughed: "That's great, with you here, I'll feel safer. By the way, you can also take this opportunity to find a girlfriend at our school... haha..."

  Sun Heng couldn't help but laugh: "I'd like to meet that... Du Yifei, right? That's what she's called. How about it, introduce me!"

  I was speechless and quickly changed the subject with Uncle Driver.

  Dongfang Yu glared at me fiercely, muttering to herself: "None of them are good things..."

  Sun Heng looked at me innocently, but I ignored him and chatted with the driver. At this time, if I had spoken to Dongfang Yu or Sun Heng, it would have caused a lot of trouble.

  We soon arrived at the school gate, and after getting off the bus, I took Sun Heng and Dongfang Yu directly to our school's office building. The office building also suffered heavy losses, with many bullet holes still visible on the walls.

  After greeting the school leaders who stayed in school, I went through the relevant procedures for Dongfang Yu. Now is the "wartime", so everything is simple, and the procedure is also very simple. In less than five minutes, Dongfang Yu became a part-time student of our school.

  Dongfang Yu chose a major that is the same as mine, but she said she would also take a minor to make it easier to find a job after graduation.

  My dormitory has been destroyed and is currently being rebuilt. So we temporarily moved into a small hotel outside the school.

  After settling down in our accommodation, I told Sun Heng and then took Dongfang Yu to the school hospital to take a look at Zhou Hui, whom we hadn't seen for several months.

  Although I knew that Zhou Hui should be fine, I still had some worries in my heart. The recent turmoil also made me wonder if Zhou Hui was affected by it.

  Dongfang Yu was very unfamiliar with this place, so I explained everything here to her while walking. She had a good memory, and after I said it once, she already remembered it.

  When we arrived at the hospital, I saw Zhou Hui at a glance. Zhou Hui was standing at the entrance of the hospital, seemingly preparing to receive patients, and there was also a doctor and two nurses standing with her.

  I went forward and greeted Zhou Hui, saying: "Are you busy?"

  Zhou Hui watched me walk towards her, but didn't say a word. She stared intently at Dongfang Yu, as if trying to see something from him.

  I knew she had misunderstood something, so I smiled and said: "This is my sister, who is also a student at our school now." Turning to face Dongfang Yu, who was looked at by Zhou Hui with great embarrassment, I said: "This is Zhou Hui, who is a bit older than me. Yuer, you can call her Hui Jie."

  "Dongfang Yu hastily said: 'Hui Jie, hello, you can call me Yuer.'"

  Zhou Hui smiled: "Yu'er, good name. I'm a friend of Jin Cang's, which means I'm your friend too. In the future, if you have anything to do, just don't be polite with me."

  Dongfang Yushang smiled and said: "I've heard my brother mention you, Hui Jie. He said you helped him a lot and that you love to laugh... your smile is really beautiful..."

  I hastily interrupted Dongfang Yu's words: "When did I ever say something like that?"

  Dongfang Yu pulled Zhou Hui to one side and said, "My brother falls in love with someone at first sight, be careful he doesn't deceive you, Hui Jie."

  I felt a burning sensation on my face and couldn't help but lower my head, not daring to look at Zhou Hui.

  Zhou Hui smiled and said: "I knew it a long time ago, I wouldn't fall for his trick! Yuer, you can rest assured, your brother can't deceive me."

  Dongfang Yu said seriously, "That's good! Hui Jie, my brother just returned to school and came to see you. Tell me, besides being friends, is there anything else between you and my brother?"

  Zhou Hui looked at Dongfang Yu, seemingly about to lose her temper, but she restrained herself: "Yu'er, I've told you before, your brother and I are just friends, very ordinary friends..." She suddenly paused for a moment, then continued: "You said your brother came back and immediately came to see me? Really? You're not lying to me, are you?"

  "Dongfang Yu shook her head: 'I'm your friend, how could I cheat you? My brother really just came back, look, he's coming over as soon as he got off the car...'"

  I couldn't wait to leave this place, and also leave Dongfang Yu, but Zhou Hui smiled and walked towards me: "You really just came back? I thought you had come back a long time ago?" Paused for a moment, grabbed my sleeve and whispered: "Come find me later, I have something to ask you."

  I was taken aback and immediately thought: Won't they ask me where I've been again? There are some things that I don't want to talk about...

  Zhou Hui didn't care whether I answered or not, she just finished speaking and went back, chatting with Dongfang Yu in a very happy manner.

  I waited for a while, and sure enough, an ambulance rushed over, and Zhou Hui and the medical staff hurried forward to start work. I pulled Dongfang Yu aside to wait, afraid of disturbing the rescue work.

  Ten minutes later, Zhou Hui came out and smiled at me and Dongfang Yu: "Let's go, I'll treat you to dinner."

  Dongfang Yu immediately exclaimed: "I've been starving for a long time, and my brother doesn't have money to treat me to good food. What does Sister Hui plan to treat me to?"

  Zhou Hui glanced at me and smiled: "The money in the gold warehouse has been given to others, if you want to eat well, I'll treat you. However, many restaurants on this side have closed down, why don't we buy some ingredients and cook at my place instead?"

  Dongfang Yuli asked with a smile: "Where does your family live? Will we be disturbing you if we go?"

  "My home is just nearby, if you go there I can get some delicious food for you, will it be a bother or not?"

  "I quickly said: 'Tomorrow, we have another partner, we'll call him tomorrow and go to your house together.'"

  Zhou Hui Bai gave me a glance: "You guys go first today, I'll make it for your partner to eat tomorrow, is that okay?"

  I smiled wryly and said, "Of course, it's settled then."

  Dongfang Yu said: "Why don't you just give Sun Heng a call and have him come over? It's not good to disturb Hui Jie every day, is it?"

  I glanced at Zhou Hui and saw that she didn't object, so I took out my phone and called Sun Heng to come over and pick up Zhou Hui for dinner.

  Zhou Hui saw a hint of strangeness in my eyes, but she didn't say anything, and I pretended not to know.

  Sun Heng came over quickly and when he saw Zhou Hui, he surprisingly recognized him: "So it's you, Zhou Hui! I was wondering who this friend of Jin Cang was!"

  Zhou Hui was also surprised: "How could it be Teacher Sun! Just now I heard Yuer say that Jin Cang's friend is called Sun Heng, and I thought it was just a coincidence of same name and surname. Now I know that the Sun Heng Yuer mentioned is actually you, Teacher Sun!"

  I'm quite surprised: "You've known each other all along?"

  Sun Heng smiled and said: "I used to be a teacher at Zhou Hui's school a few years ago... you understand, so I won't say more."

  It wasn't until now that I realized Sun Heng had carried out a mission at Zhou Hui's school, which was how they knew each other.

  Sun Heng and Zhou Hui knew each other, so I didn't need to make introductions. We went straight to Zhou Hui's home together.

  Zhou Hui has her own house here, although it's not a villa or a mansion, but it's quite spacious. I took a rough look around and saw that the two-story townhouse had a living room on the first floor with over 100 square meters of space. Adding in the other rooms and balconies, it's at least around 300 square meters. With two floors, that's 600 square meters, saying it's spacious doesn't do it justice, it should be said to be very spacious!

  Zhou Hui's home was empty, she said her parents had moved back to their hometown due to the previous terrorist attack, so only she lived here alone.

  Sun Heng and I were embarrassed to be wandering around Zhou Hui's home, but Dong Fangyu didn't care about these things. While helping Zhou Hui cook, he would glance left and right, completely treating it as his own home.

  The dinner was very sumptuous, and Zhou Hui and Dongfang Yu's craftsmanship were also very good. I and Sun Heng ate so full that we almost became real big-bellied men.

  At dinner time, Zhou Hui suggested that we stay at her house for a few days first, so as not to live in a hotel outside. I and Sun Heng strongly opposed it, but Dongfang Yu was the first to stand up and agree.

  I don't know how Dongfang Yu got along with Zhou Hui, but I still insisted on bringing Dongfang Yu out. Although Zhou Hui and I are friends, we haven't reached the point where we can trouble her with everything, so I disagree with Dongfang Yu living in Zhou Hui's house.

  Zhou Hui saw us out, but said to me: "It seems that you still don't consider me your true friend. If you did, you wouldn't have let Yu'er leave with you. I'm afraid of living alone in such a big house at night... You..."

  I just thought of this and silently scolded myself for being careless: "Otherwise, I would have let Yuer stay?"

  Sun Heng looked at me and seemed to want to say something but hesitated. I quickly asked him: "What's wrong? Do you have any ideas?"

  Sun Heng thought for a moment before saying, "To be honest, I still think the three of us should stay together. If we split up, I won't be able to... take care of both of you..."

  I thought so too, and had no choice but to say to Zhou Hui: "Sorry, Sun Heng also has a point..."

  Zhou Hui nodded: "Then why don't you all just stay together? Wouldn't that be fine? What's there to owe each other?"

  I was taken aback for a moment, then thought it was fine and said: "Then I'll go with Sun Heng to get the luggage, we'll be right over."

  Sun Heng wanted to say something, but didn't say it. I left first and soon retrieved the luggage that was placed in the small hotel.

  Sun Heng then said: "We just live in Zhou Hui's house like this, is that appropriate?"

  I smiled: "What's wrong with that? Don't think too much. Take your luggage to Zhou Hui's house first, I want to take a look at the school. I'll be back soon."

  Sun Heng thought for a moment: "Alright, be careful."

  I responded with a sound, got up and walked towards the school. In two months' time, everything in the school was almost unrecognizable. The originally beautiful campus no longer existed, even my original dormitory was gone. Many workers were building new student apartments, and the scene was still quite lively.

  But even the workers who were on duty had a hint of terror on their faces, as if they still hadn't fully recovered from the terrorist attack.

  I slowly walked through the school, looking at one piece of rubble after another, feeling a sense of regret and also secretly grateful that I had narrowly escaped.

  When I arrived at the library, I recalled the scenes before and couldn't help but stand there, staring blankly at the tightly closed door of the library. In the entire campus, it was only this library that was preserved relatively well. Although there were many bullet holes on the wall of the library and not a few stains, generally speaking, it was still intact.

  Several workers passed by me, looking at me with confusion. One of them couldn't help but say: "Don't wait, it's still at least a month before classes start!"

  I smiled and nodded at him, feeling that we had indeed arrived a bit early. The school's situation was very bad, and it was likely that classes would not start for another month.

  I wandered around in school and felt that everything from before no longer existed, and there was nothing good to see anymore, so I headed towards Zhou Hui's home.